Unikz
Bristol, United Kingdom
0 Works exhibited on Kooness
Current location
Geneva, Switzerland
Categories
Works by Unikz
Unikz is the pseudonym of a street artist whose identity remains unknown. Born in Bristol (Great Britain), he lives and works in Geneva (Switzerland). Active since 2015, he uses stencil painting, acrylic sculpture, and digital art in the form of computer-generated images to convey his critical, anticapitalist, or anti-system messages against our consumer society. Some of his works denounce the impact of finance on our lives, the use of animals as commodities, the industrialization of art, or the capture of resources. He incorporates animals (rats, monkeys, sharks), famous people, or other works of art that he parodies into his creations or installations.He's believed to have collaborated with the street artist Banksy to create some of his works.
Auction Sales: "The woman who knew too much", 101 × 32 cm, sold for €1000 at Drouot in Paris on November 20, 2017. Collage of B-movie posters on resin and pigments of Chanel cosmetics on a Stratocaster guitar, vintage tremolo, 3 microphones with maple neck. Signed. "Punked cosmonaut", 198 × 90 cm, sold for €3000 at Drouot in Paris on November 20, 2017. Cosmonaut in resin and automobile aerosol on a cast-iron base. The helmet includes a LED screen under the visor displaying a looped video sequence of the eyes of famous deceased people. Sculpture attributed to the artist. "Koons monkey", 108 × 100 cm, sold for €15,000 at Cappelaere & Pruneaux on Drouot in Bar-le-duc on May 16, 2021. Sale of a non-fungible token (NFT) representing a masked monkey throwing a bouquet of tulips in front of Jeff Koons' monumental work "Bouquet of Tulips" in Paris, and an acrylic sculpture attributed to the artist. "Rat in Paris", 110 × 100 cm, sold for €14,000 at Cappelaere & Pruneaux on Drouot in Bar-le-duc on May 16, 2021. Sale of a non-fungible token (NFT) representing a masked rat carrying a ratcoin in front of a Banksy stencil in Paris, and an acrylic sculpture representing the same rat, attributed to the artist.
Artworks: "Ratcoin": In 2018, the artist created a virtual currency called "Ratcoin". Five giant resin rats carrying a piece of the virtual currency were created and installed in different locations in Paris: one in front of the Palais de la Bourse, one on the Pont de l'Alma, one at the Palais de Tokyo, and another installed next to a Banksy graffiti near the Maison de la Radio on the Quais de Seine. The photo of the rats looking at the Eiffel Tower was published on the artist's website.
"Ratcoin NFT": In 2020, the artist created a unique Ratcoin in the form of an NFT presented on the Opensea platform. This digital token (NFT, non-fungible token) was auctioned on May 16, 2021 for €7,000.
"Attack, attack, attack": In 2020, Unikz collaborated with photographer Andrew Bayles to create an NFT that allows viewers to discover a part of Banksy's creative process. The artwork is a 50-second digital video loop that begins with Banksy's "Rage, the Flower Thrower" image, and then a photograph appears in superimposition showing a man throwing a Molotov cocktail. This photo, taken in Leeds (United Kingdom) in 1987, is the base image that was used to make Banksy's stencil in 2005. The photo, taken by Andrew Bayles, was published in 1987 in an anarchist newspaper called "Attack, Attack, Attack", which was produced and distributed anonymously due to the radical information it contained. This artwork relaunches speculations about Banksy's identity, who could be Robert Del Naja (alias 3D), leader of the trip hop group Massive Attack.